Air India completed its merger with Vistara on 12 November 2024. The company’s records describe employee-system changes before that date and plans for continued integration afterwards. For businesses attempting a cultural reset, that sequence raises a useful question: what must be ready when the organisation changes?
The Breakdown
Stanford researcher MarYam Hamedani and three co-authors proposed seven principles for intentional culture change in American Psychologist, first published online in November 2023 and in its April 2024 issue. Drawing on research and practical experience, the framework focuses on inequality in the United States. One principle concerns timing and readiness: wider conditions can affect whether change takes hold.
The authors call for further research into cultural differences and better ways to measure change. Their framework offers questions to ask about an Indian merger, rather than tested instructions for scheduling one.
The work before and after the date
Air India’s second-anniversary Vihaan.AI report, which still listed the October and November 2024 group mergers as upcoming, described changes already introduced. These included the Rise.AI performance-management system, the myAI employee portal, about 30 policies and benefits harmonisation for fixed-term and permanent staff. It also described the start of an integrated organisation structure for the full-service and low-cost businesses.
When the Vistara merger closed, Air India said preparation had begun more than two years earlier. It reported bringing over 6,000 Vistara employees into a new organisation structure, harmonising operating procedures across the four group airlines and aligning more than 140 IT systems.
Air India also specified who would handle integration after completion. On 8 November 2024, Air India announced that Vistara chief executive Vinod Kannan would continue as chief integration officer after the merger, reporting to Air India’s CEO. That was an explicit arrangement for the period following the legal combination.
In a further account dated 2 April 2026, Air India described individual performance targets, balanced scorecards and redesigned compensation linking performance to career progression. It also reported more than 60 updated employee policies. These are company descriptions of its programme, rather than an independent assessment of employees’ experience.
Three things to put on the calendar
Taken together, these records suggest three milestones worth separating: the formal organisational change, the availability of the systems employees must use, and the later assessment of behaviour. They do not establish that Air India’s chosen timing improved culture or that another business should follow the same sequence.
For an Indian company combining teams, a useful exercise is to work backwards from an employee’s first day under the new arrangement. Which policy applies? Can they access the relevant system? When does the revised appraisal scheme begin? Different answers may need different implementation dates, even when the merger has one completion date.
A later review can then examine whether people understand the changes and can use the new arrangements in practice. Installing a portal or issuing a policy establishes a different milestone from showing that everyday decisions and behaviour have changed.
The Crunch
A major transition creates a visible date to organise around. Culture change also requires decisions about preparation, implementation and assessment. Air India’s published sequence makes those separate tasks visible; their effects still need evidence.